603,307 units
Whirrwork Research
Research and statistics on robot work
Citable statistics on the robot-work market, original research from our own dataset, and the standards we hold ourselves to. Free to use under CC BY 4.0.
- 115 statistics
- 91% from primary sources
- 4 original reports
- 1 dataset releases
Most-cited figures
38,428 units
The United States installed 38,428 industrial robots in 2025, up 12% and 67% of installations in the Americas, according to the IFR.
354,226 units
China installed 354,226 industrial robots in 2025, up 20%, making it by far the largest market, according to the IFR.
1,220 robots per 10,000 manufacturing employees
South Korea has the world’s highest robot density, with 1,220 industrial robots per 10,000 manufacturing employees in 2024, according to the IFR.
$13 USD per acre
The average price per acre for drone crop spraying in the US fell 38%, from $21 to $13, in 2025, according to the ASDC survey.
$18.8 billion USD (venture funding)
Robotics startups had raised $18.8 billion by late June 2026, already more than in all of 2025, according to Crunchbase data.
almost 6,900 units (approx.)
Almost 6,900 humanoid robots were reported sold worldwide in 2025, mostly by companies headquartered in Asia, according to the IFR.
427 bankruptcies
Japan recorded 427 bankruptcies caused by labour shortages in 2025, a record for the third year running, according to Teikoku Databank.
71% percent of jobs
71% of the robot jobs Whirrwork tracks (220 of 308) have no publicly sourced price: buyers have to ask for a quote.
2,027,200 vs 393,700 units
China had about five times more industrial robots in use than the US in 2024: 2,027,200 versus 393,700, according to the IFR.
Original research
Reports built from Whirrwork's own dataset of robot jobs, providers and sourced prices. Each one states its method and sample size.
First edition (October 2026) · n = 308 jobs
Robot Service Price Index: what 308 robot jobs cost, and how many won't say
88 of 308 robot jobs have at least one sourced price. Together they hold 302 price points from 134 websites in 16 currencies.
First edition (October 2026) · n = 308 jobs
Priced or quote-only? How many robot jobs and providers publish a price
71% of robot jobs have no public price, and only 14% of providers publish one.
First edition (October 2026) · n = 308 jobs
Where the robot providers are: coverage by country
Whirrwork's 681 providers are headquartered in 62 countries and cover 65. The top headquarters country is the United States (36.6%).
First edition (October 2026) · n = 308 jobs
Can you actually hire it? The share of robot jobs with listed providers
99.7% of tracked robot jobs have at least one listed provider, but only 34% have five or more.
Demand data (what people search for and request) is still too small to publish responsibly. We will add it when the sample supports it.
Browse by topic
- Robot adoption and installations 31
- Service robots 8
- Humanoid robots 7
- Drones and drone services 5
- Agriculture 6
- Cleaning robots 4
- Warehouse and logistics 6
- Construction and inspection 2
- Labour shortages and wages 8
- Prices and price declines 12
- Funding, deals and failures 10
- Regulation 3
- Whirrwork dataset 13
Citation standards
How we choose sources, date figures, label estimates, disclose conflicts and correct mistakes.
Dataset releases
Versioned, immutable releases of the statistics and report data as CSV and JSON, with SHA-256 checksums.
Corrections log
Every correction we make to a published statistic or report, oldest first. Entries are never edited or removed.
Press and media kit
Who we are, how the data is gathered, a fact sheet, logos, charts you can embed, and story ideas from the data.
Robot or human? calculator
Compare what a job costs done by a robot or by people, with trendlines and projections.
Licence and attribution
Text, statistics pages, charts and dataset releases are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0). Quoted passages remain the property of their publishers, and third-party figures should also be credited to their original source.
Attribution wording: Source: Whirrwork (https://whirrwork.com), CC BY 4.0 · CC BY 4.0